"If President Nixon could go to China to meet the Communist leaders, Gov. Christie can sit down and talk to the New Jersey Education Association," writes Blairstown resident Fred Cook.

TO THE EDITOR:
In his State of the State address, Gov. Chris Christie continued his efforts to convince people that New Jersey's public schools are doing a bad job of educating our children and need to be reformed. He has become a national figure in the Republican Party by attacking the New Jersey Education Association and blaming the NJEA for what he calls our "chronically failing public schools."

In his speech he repeated his call for "shared sacrifice" and talked about 100,000 students trapped in almost 200 failing schools. Christie said the legislature "must pass the bipartisan opportunity scholarship act without further delay." He said our results in terms of achievement are not number one and are not uniformly excellent or even acceptable.

He made education reform one of his top three priorities and even introduced Michelle Rhee, the Sarah Palin of education (Rhee quit her job as District of Columbia superintendent of schools before anyone could tell if her reforms would have any lasting impact), sitting in the audience next to Mrs. Christie.

Christie said we must end the myth that more money for education equals better achievement.

The truth is that New Jersey's public schools, taken as a whole, are excellent. We have 1,370,000 students in New Jersey attending 2,485 schools. Using Christie's own figures demonstrates that the vast majority of our schools are doing fine and don't need reform. We don't need to abolish tenure, adopt merit pay, or have the state dictate the salaries for school superintendents.

The low test scores are in schools in urban areas. The majority of students live in poverty, there is a problem with gangs and drugs, and the culture in thee communities does not value education.

While Christie says spending more money will not help students, his own actions show that he doesn't really believe that. He sends his children to Delbarton, an exclusive private school that caters to the wealthiest families in Morris County. The school enrolls 540 boys (no girls, no special education department) in grades 7-12, an average of 90 boys per grade level. The school is located on 240 acres, has a 24,000 square foot science pavilion, a 36,000 square foot Fine Arts Center, and a 25,000 volume library. Tuition is $26,495 a year plus $500 for books. The average class size is 15. In addition to paying tuition parents are expected to contribute additional amounts, totaling $814,000 last year.

Yes governor, money does matter.

The NJEA has suggested a reasonable reform in the tenure law. The NJEA proposal would cut the time needed to make a decision on a tenure case from over a year to 60 to 90 days, at a greatly reduced cost. When someone at one of Christie's town hall meetings suggested he sit down with the officers of the NJEA and have a cup of coffee, his response was "Never!" If President Nixon could go to China to meet the Communist leaders, Gov. Christie can sit down and talk to the NJEA.